Chicago Bears head coach Ben Johnson has built a strong culture in a short time with this organization that is deeply rooted in individual accountability, competition, and doing all of the little things right to field a championship-caliber team.

It’s a culture his players have now fully embraced and we’re finally starting to see what a player-led team actually looks like once you have a strong foundation in place set by a strong coaching staff.

During Tuesday’s training camp practice, the session was not up to the championship standard and as a result, cornerback Jaylon Johnson gathered the entire team together in the middle of practice and made sure that was known.

“Felt like it wasn’t good enough, and I agree” safety Cam Lewis said of Johnson’s message to the team. “It wasn’t to our standard. You want to win the division back-to-back years, you’re the hunted now. What we did in the first half of the practice wasn’t to our standards, so we brought it up. Told the guys that, and we moved on.”

After that moment, practice ramped back up going into team drills and Johnson’s message “heightened the competitiveness” on both sides of the ball back to the level the team wants to be at each and every day.

“I thought that was good by Jaylon to kind of step up and get us going there,” tight end Cole Kmet said. “And I thought it ended up being one of our better practices of the camp so far.”

Jaylon Johnson continues to step up as a locker room leader for the Chicago Bears

Jaylon Johnson stepping up like this and telling it how it is isn’t something new we’ve seen out of him. After that Thanksgiving loss back in 2024, who knows if Matt Eberflus would have even been fired that next week had Johnson not spoken up.

He, along with Kmet, are the longest-tenured veterans on this team and have stepped up into that leadership role that aligns this entire roster. They keep the main things the main thing and aren’t afraid to speak up when things start to slack. You love to see it.

It’s also worth noting that Johnson was out there on Saturday as one of the team captains for the preseason game against the Cincinnati Bengals. Come Week 1, I wouldn’t be surprised if Johnson is wearing the “C” on his chest.

All of these little moments matter for a player looking to sign another extension in Chicago

Which leads me to Johnson’s future outlook with the Bears. After the 2026 season, Johnson has no more guaranteed money remaining with a $25 million cap hit, the perfect recipe to either part ways to iron out a new extension.

Which way the Bears go ultimately depends entirely on Johnson’s play this upcoming season. This coaching staff still hasn’t seen Johnson at his best after missing 10 games last season and working his way through a pretty serious injury. Back in 2023 and 2024, Johnson was a Pro Bowl-caliber cornerback capable of locking down defenders. If he can reclaim that level of play in 2026, along with his leadership traits, this would be a no-brainer decision for Chicago to make.

“I’ve seen improvement out of Jaylon,” defensive coordinator Dennis Allen explained last week. “I’ve seen some flashes that say ‘Man, he’s looking a little bit more like you expected him to look.’ And yet, there’s still a lot of growth. The system that we’re in is a lot different than what he was in before. I think we’re still growing, we’re still learning. But, I’ve seen him take to what we’re trying to get done and I’ve seen him improve.”

It’s going to be a big evaluation year for Johnson, but in the meantime, he’s doing everything he can to prove he’s still a leader this team needs for the future.